A&E Series 'Bates Motel', Lifetime And USA Pilots Add To Casts

Young British actress Olivia Cooke (BBC’s Blackout) has landed a co-starring role on A&E’s upcoming series Bates Motel, which serves as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock horror classic Psycho. The series examines the twisted relationship between serial-killer-to-be Norman (Freddie Highmore) and his mother Norma (Vera Varmiga). Cooke, repped by Gersh and Lena Roklin, will play the eccentric and extremely bright Emma, who has a disease that could take her life early and gives her a sense of adventure and that time is of the essence. She recently finished the thriller The Quiet Ones.

Rachel Boston (In Plain Sight) is set as a lead in the hourlong Lifetime pilot Witches Of East End. Based on Melissa de la Cruz’s best-selling novel, Witches Of East End centers on the adventures of Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond), who has been concealing a shocking secret from her two adult daughters Freya (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) and Ingrid (Boston) — namely, that they are witches born and bred. American Dreams alumna Boston is with us Gersh and John Carrabino.

Dorian Missick (Southland) has booked a recurring role in the USA Network single-camera comedy pilot Paging Dr. Freed, which centers on gynecologist brothers David (Kyle Howard) and Jonathan (Joel David Moore) who inherit their father’s thriving medical practice and have to deal with their meddling mother (Annie Potts). Missick, repped by Innovative Aritsts and MJ Management, will play an anesthesiologist and friend of the Freed brothers who attended medical school with David.